Fox Joins Other Networks in Blocking Google TV

Fox has now blocked Google TV’s web browser from streaming episodes found online at Fox.com, joining ABC, NBC, and CBS to round out the major broadcast networks’ stance against the idea of a web browser on a TV set.

Further confusing the issue is that some streaming episodes of some shows can be streamed via different sites either owned by the networks or run by one of the networks’ partners.

For instance, I can’t play “NCIS” on CBS.com with Google TV, but I can play “NCIS” on TV.com, which is owned by CBS. I can’t watch “Family Guy” on Fox.com, but I can watch it (and several other shows from several other networks) through Xfinity.TV, which is run by Comcast.

Hulu.com, which is owned by ABC, NBC, and Fox, can’t be used with Google TV, yet Google and Hulu are apparently working out a deal to bring Hulu Plus—a $10 per month premium version of Hulu.com—to Google TV.

Google TV’s Rishi Chandra said at a recent conference that Google TV isn’t meant to replace cable TV. “Our point of view is that cord cutting is not happening,” Chandra said. “We think the cable industry does a pretty good job of delivering content to users…so we don’t think that all of a sudden users are going to shut off all that content.”

The big issue is that the networks want you to watch their TV channels on a TV set and their online streaming episodes from a computer. Once you hook a computer up to a TV set and try to access the networks’ own web sites, which is basically Google TV in a nutshell, the networks get nervous.